


Language Barrier

by nikkiRA



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, let me reiterate that i do not speak italian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-11
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-14 03:12:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4548069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nikkiRA/pseuds/nikkiRA
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Who’s that?” Jason mutters. </p>
<p>“Nico di Angelo, I think. Annabeth met him. Doesn’t say much.”</p>
<p>“Does he even speak English?”</p>
<p>Percy shrugs, and if Jason had been paying attention to him instead of the angry Italian in the elevator with them, he might have seen the tiny smile he was trying to suppress. </p>
<p>or, the one where Jason thinks Nico can't speak English and everyone talks about how hot he is</p>
            </blockquote>





	Language Barrier

**Author's Note:**

> this was a prompt on tumblr that I CANNOT FIND also i cannot speak Italian this is all google translate bear with me

“Remind me again where everyone else is?”

“Terribly, terribly ill. Apparently.”

“You know, actually, I think I might be coming down with that same thing.”

Percy gives him a long look. “Shut up and grab that box.”

Jason sighs and grabs one of the boxes out of the car. Apparently he had missed the memo that every single person in their friend group had come down with a terrible case of mono.

“Look, in all seriousness, thank you for doing this for me. I really appreciate it, dude.”

Jason glares at Percy. That was too well timed to have been genuine. Percy smiles sweetly at him.

Jason grabs the box.

“You had to live on the _fifteenth floor_ too, didn’t you.”

“Stop whining, most of the stuff is already up there, this is just the breakable shit.”

“So don’t drop this, is what you’re saying?”

“Not unless you want to deal with Annabeth. Hold the elevator!”

Jason watches as a skinny guy with long black hair pulled back at his neck sticks his foot out to stop the elevator door from closing. Jason and Percy squeeze in and Percy nods at the guy, who nods back. He is talking on the phone, speaking quickly in what Jason thinks might be Italian, and sounding rather annoyed.

“Who’s that?” Jason mutters.

“Nico di Angelo, I think. Annabeth met him. Doesn’t say much.”

“Does he even speak English?”

Percy shrugs, and if Jason had been paying attention to him instead of the angry Italian in the elevator with them, he might have seen the tiny smile he was trying to suppress.

Nico gets off on the thirteenth floor, speaking angrily in his phone the entire time. Jason doesn’t know much Italian, but he’s pretty sure he hears the word for _shit_ quite a few times.

“Pick your jaw off the floor, Grace,” Percy says as the elevators close. Jason sputters incoherently, but he doesn’t deny it.

“Shut up,” is his great reply. Percy laughs as they reach their floor and meet Annabeth at their apartment, and for the next few hours, as Jason helps unpack and set up, he is too busy to think much about Nico di Angelo. But when he gets home he finds his brain constantly straying to the muscles of his arms and his dark, expressive eyes. Jason shakes his head, telling himself he’s being stupid. He’ll probably never even see him again, anyway.

* * *

It turns out this isn’t true. The next time Jason is going to visit Percy and Annabeth, this time with Piper, Nico slips into the elevator at the last minute holding a few bags of groceries, and he must be obvious again, because Piper nudges him and says, far too loudly for Jason’s liking, “That’s him, isn’t it?”

_“Piper,”_ he hisses. “Be quiet!”

“What?” She says, slightly quieter. “Percy said he doesn’t speak English!”

“Percy said he _thinks_ he doesn’t speak English,” he whispers.

Piper surveys him. “He’s cute. Not my type. But definitely yours.”

“Piper, I am not discussing this. I am definitely not discussing this with you and I am definitely not discussing it _in front of him.”_

Piper smiles and links her arm through his. “We agreed ex-girlfriend privilege means I get to tease you.”

“This is the longest elevator ride in the history of elevator rides.”

He risks a glance at Nico, who is leaning against the wall and looking bored. He gives no indication that he understands their conversation. No sign that he knows how attracted to him Jason is.

Maybe things will be okay.

They reach the thirteenth floor and Nico leaves without any sort of acknowledgement. Piper smiles.

“I could teach you Italian.”

“You don’t speak Italian.”

“It’s very similar to French. We’ll use the internet. You could ask him out.”

“I don’t even know his sexuality, Piper.”

“Fine, you could _talk_ to him and feel him out, and if you’re lucky then you’ll _really_ get to feel him out.”

They reach the fifteenth floor and Jason all but runs out of the elevator. “This conversation is over!”

Piper just laughs and follows him.

* * *

He learns Italian. Well. He learns some Italian. Percy makes fun of him relentlessly but Piper is surprisingly helpful and doesn’t mock him once. Now all he needs is the opportunity.

He gets it a few weeks later, when he is leaving Percy and Annabeth’s place. The elevator stops on the thirteenth floor and Nico gets on. Jason doesn’t breathe until the tenth floor and then he closes his eyes and says quickly, before he can lose his courage, “Ciao. Il mio nome è Jason. Hai Nico, giusto?”

Nico looks at him with his eyes narrowed. Eventually he says, slowly, like he’s unsure what Jason is playing at, “Si.”

Jason takes another breath. “Ho pensato che forse avrei potuto aiutare a mostrare in giro.” _I thought maybe I could help show you around._

Nico studies him for a few moments again before slowly nodding. Jason smiles. “Avete una pene in modo che io possa dare il mio numero?”

Nico’s eyebrows shoot up. Jason is wondering what he did when Nico smirks and says, much to Jason’s complete horror, “I assume you want a pen so you can give me your number, but you just asked if I have a penis.”

Jason is praying to any deity that may exist to open up the floor of the elevator and let him fall to his death. “You... speak English?”

Nico, a smirk on his face, nods.

Jason wants to die.

“I don’t suppose you learned in the past week and you’re just really proficient at languages?”

He shakes his head. Jason wonders if Percy and Annabeth would be willing to move.

“Okay. Last question. Does Percy know you speak English?”

Still smirking, Nico nods. Jason groans. “Oh, he’s dead. He’s so incredibly dead. So you heard –”

“Everything, yes.”

“I am going to kill him. He’s going to die.”

Nico is looking at him in amusement. Jason leans against the wall and runs a hand over his face. “So who were you talking to?”

“My father. I speak to him in Italian so it’s easier to cuss him out in public.”

“Fucking Christ.”

The elevator reaches the ground floor and Jason resists the urge to run. Nico steps out after him and Jason considers pretending he left something upstairs to avoid walking outside with him, but Nico keeps walking and Jason doesn’t want to let it end that way.

“Hey, dude, I’m uh – I’m sorry.”

Nico shrugs, which Jason takes to mean _don’t worry._ He remembers Percy saying that he didn’t talk much, and even if he had lied about his speaking English, Jason has a feeling that that, at least, had been genuine. He briefly considers walking away and never ever mentioning this or even thinking about it again and wearing one of those glasses/mustache things whenever he visited Percy but then he thinks, _I’ve already made a fool of myself, what more could I possibly do._

So he says, “I’m assuming you don’t need to be shown around, then?”

Nico’s mouth curls up. “I’ve lived in this city for fifteen years.”

“Right.” He takes a deep breath. “I still... I’d still like to give you my number. If you don’t mind.”

Nico studies him, and Jason stares back. He doesn’t know what Nico sees, but eventually he sighs and says, “Okay.”

“Okay?”

He nods. “Yeah.” He pats his pockets and then looks up at Jason. “Do you have a penis?”

Jason turns a violent shade of red and Nico snorts, before holding his phone out to Jason. “Just put your number in my phone.” Jason does, and when he hands Nico his phone back their fingers brush; Nico’s hands are remarkably cold.

“I’ll see you later,” Jason mutters, ready to hightail it to his car. Nico nods.

“Don’t be too harsh on Percy,” Nico says with a smirk.

“I make no promises,” he says. He manages to keep totally calm on his way to his car, at which point he slams the door and then immediately calls Piper.

**Author's Note:**

> why did jason want a pen when they could have just used their phones in the first place? because jason grace is a huge nerd and also pen/penis was the easiest mistake i could find okay accept it and move on


End file.
